EPISODE 4: "CONFLICTS OF INTEREST"

Written By Alex Matthews

Created by Jonathan Crosby-Bromley 
and Alex Matthews

Based on 'Star Trek' 
created by Gene Roddenberry

“Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan fiction is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

Copyright (c) 2020

Produced by Sojournerverse Productions

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CAST

Vicky McClure as Lieutenant Daniela Reese
with
Marcia Cross as Captain Helena Tel
Steven R. McQueen as Commander Solan
Indira Varma as Commander (Dr.) Maggie Campbell
Hannah John-Kamen as Lieutenant Mitchell 'Mitch' Hanover
Kit Harrington as Lieutenant Eitan Dayan
Freddie Fox as Olishnavar ‘Oli’ th'Dane
and
Michael Fassbender as Commander Xerxises Cinaran 

GUEST CAST

Joshua Shea as Charlie Cinaran
Nicole Kang as Ensign Min-Cho Ye
Paige Hurd as Lieutenant, j.g, Tabitha Clarke

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Space itself seemed to twist and ripple, before slamming directly into the weakening shield of the Starship Antares. The Miranda-class starship bucked wildly as it desperately tried to keep itself stable, as it slowly moved away from it's attacker, with little success...

*           *           *

"Keep it together, keep it together!"
As she bellowed the words that echoed across Engineering, Mitchell Hanover saw that the crew of officers barely old enough to shave seemed to take reassurance in them, as they returned to their tasks with laser-like focus, or as near as they could manage. 
Truth was, that effect was a glorious happenstance. What she'd really been shouting at was the Antares herself. In a lower voice, not wanting to ruin it, she whispered, "Come on, old girl, you got this. These bastards aren't going to bust you up, are they?"
Unfortunately, they didn't have the same effect on the wounded starship. The sudden absence of the usual thrumming that came from the warp core told her that it had just knocked off-line by a lucky shot. "Oh, shit..." she muttered with disappointment.
She quickly called up a diagnostic on her panel, that confirmed her suspicion within seconds.  Looking up, she yelled over to the plump Denobulan woman at the station nearest the warp core, "Chief, the primary power coupling on this deck just got knocked out of alignment!"
Drazx's head bobbed up and down, "On it, Boss!" The Master Chief, the most senior of the ship's enlisted personnel and her trusted No. 2 in all engineering matters, grabbed a couple of the junior officers flanking her at the console, "Travers, Strong, you're with me!"
Hanover turned her attention back to her flickering displays as the three of them rushed out after grabbing their toolkits. She didn't need to worry, not with Draxz on the job. 
Now she just needed to focus on making sure that the impulse engines didn't explode and the forward shields stayed on-line. Just another day in Starfleet...
She grimaced as she heard the comm. system chime, already knowing whose voice she'd here, [Bridge to Engineering. Status?]
"Not good, Cap," Hanover replied honestly. She wasn't a big fan of suger-coating things, even more so when it came to dealing with her commanding officers. Sometimes they just needed to be told things straight. It wasn't her problem if they didn't like it.
She looked over at the master situation display at the other end of the small compartment that was the Antares's engine room, feeling it like a knife in her gut as she saw how the power old thing was suffering, "Shields are already at less the 50%. Whatever they hit us with, we can't take another hit if we want to keep our hull plating where it is."
[Acknowledged,] replied Tel coolly. Hanover had to admit, she had a growing grudging respect for the red-head. She was calm under pressure. [If we keep out of the way of their main weapon, how long will the shields hold under normal fire?]
It only took Hanover another quick glance to know the answer, "Not long. Most of the forward generators are already red-lining, and the others are picking up the slack." That meant that overall shield strength would continue to fall as they were overtaxed. Unless...
Her fingers danced over the main systems monitoring table interface, "I'm tying them into the deflector array." She winced, "It wont be pretty, and it will kick us in the ass later, but it will buy us some extra protection."
[Let's deal with the here and now, Chief,] Tel replied, and the German-born engineer could almost hear her grinning through the comm-link, [Worry about later when there is a later. Bridge out.]
As Hanover continued to work what she had a horrible feeling might be the first of many necessary engineering miracles, she took some comfort in the captain's phrasing.
She said 'when'. Not 'if'. That's something, I guess...

*           *           *

As the bridge shook around her, Helena Tel fought like the devil to keep in her seat. She found she missed the old-style secure restraints that had been phased out over the last decade from bridge seating. Apparently, faith in inertial stabilizers was such at the design offices of Utopia Planitia that they were now considered 'unnecessary', and so the bridge module the Antares had received included newer, ergonomically-designed chairs. 
Yeah, she thought with disgust, try being in a battle when those damn stabilizers fail!
As the ship righted itself, and moved away from their unknown attacker, Tel saw that only she and Dayan had managed to stay in position. Petty Officer Kinchaal, the Jelna Rigellian relief navigator, was sprawled against the lower command deck. A quick look over her shoulder told her both Lieutenant Clarke, Ensign Ye and the enlisted men manning the aft stations were also pulling themselves up from the deck.
"Any response to hails, Ensign?" she called out. Ye's quick shake of the head wasn't really a surprise, but Tel was still bitterly disappointed. Whoever they were, they didn't want to talk.
"Keeping our distance, Captain," Dayan reported. His voice was calm on the surface, but Tel could hear the undercurrent of stress in his words. Dayan was capable, and had combat experience, but still had a lot to learn, hence his assignment to Antares.
Tel touched a control on her chair LCARS interface, pulling up a tactical plot on the main screen, "Watch your turns, Lieutenant," she cautioned, "with our stabilizers down we're going to feel every bump."
Dayan nodded tersely as Tel called over her shoulder, "Clarke, what did they hit us with?"
"Focused gravitons, Captain!" the junior science officer replied with amazement, "Directed in such a way that it compressed them into a wave of pure force that smacked into the shields with incredible strength."
The Antares shuddered again, but not as hard. Alarms from various consoles told Tel that they hadn't gotten away totally unscathed though.
"Standard directed energy weapons that time," Clarke quickly reported, "Weaker then our own phasers, but still effective."
"Why not just fire on us again with their big gun?" Dayan muttered as he began another deft series of evasive moves.
Tel understood why though, "Probably takes a lot of power to generate that effect," she mused out loud for the benefit of the crew, "Maybe they're not used to fighting opponents with shielding technology..?"
"You might be right, Captain," Clarke supported cautiously, "I'm not reading any kind of active shields on the enemy vessel. Just massively reinforced hull plating. Like armor all over the ship's superstructure."
Another impact slammed into them. Tel ducked instinctively as an overhead ceiling panel was knocked loose. It slammed into the unfortunate ensign who'd taken over the console formerly configured as the primary Science station, that now acted as a dedicated Tactical station. 
Something inside Tel snapped. That's it. The gloves are coming off! She pushed herself out of her chair, and practically fell against the Tactical console, before scrambling around to its touch-screen surface. She was peripherally aware that Clarke was checking on the fallen officer, but right now her focus was on the enemy ship. 
"Mr. Dayan, continue evasive manuevers, but keep our aft to them as much as possible," she barked out over the din of the alarms going off all across the bridge, "I want our strongest shields to them."
"Yes, ma'am!" Dayan replied, hunching over his consoles, checking with Kinchaal who had finally regained his seat, as they matched their moves to better coordinate the ship's flight-path. 
"You want a fight, you're gonna get a fight," Tel whispered, as she input a firing pattern, ramping up the power of the aft phasers and loaded the torpedo bays, "Let's see how much your armor can take, shall we?"
She knew that the Antares was primarily a science vessel. But it was still a Starfleet ship, built to take care of itself in those situations that called for extreme force. Antares could dish out plenty. So there was no hesitation this time as Tel slammed her fingers down on the firing controls.
This battle is joined, you bastards...

*           *           *

Come on, Reese. You got them into this. Now, get them out...
As Dr. Maggie Campbell did what she could for her Andorian patient with the supplies she had brought along with her in her med-kit, Daniela Reese was very aware that she was under the scrutiny of both Commander Solan, the Executive Officer of the Antares, as well as her old friend, Xerxises Cinaran, the Science Officer.
She instead tried to focus on her tricorder scans. But it was difficult considering the pounding sound of energy weapons impacting on the sealed hatch that had become an improvised barrier between her away team and unknown aliens. 
"What do your scans tell us about the intruders?" Solan asked, finally breaking the silence that had reigned for the past few minutes after Reese had sealed them inside the ruined bridge of the Winds of Andoria.
Cinaran's reply was tense, "Not much of anything, sir. I think they must be deploying some kind of sensor-dampening field."
"Probably built into the armor I saw them wearing," Reese added quietly. Wanting to contribute something.
Cinaran's patience finally ran out, as the Betazoid snapped, "Can't we try talking to them?!"
Solan simply quirked an eyebrow, "I believe the fact they almost killed Lieutenant Reese shows us they are not willing to 'talk', Commander." The Vulcan placidly looked back at the hatch, "How much longer will the hatch hold?"
The reply was so devoid of emotion, it spooked Reese to hear her old friend talk like that, "Maybe ten, fifteen minutes more, sir." 
Despite everything, that gave Reese a little spark of hope. She remembered the smell of their weapons. Plasma beams, she realized. They wouldn't cut through as fast as phasers or disruptors. They have to actually melt their way in. 
The idea hit her with such suddenness, that she actually snapped her fingers with excitement, "That's it!"
She felt all eyes on her again, but ignored it as she reconfigured her tricorder to detect just how much duranium and tritanium was currently between the away team and the planet outside. Yes... this is gonna work!
"Lieutenant?" Solan queried patiently.
"Okay," she began, "so we can't go out that way..." She pointed to the hatch, noting that it was starting to glow from all the heat being thrown against it, "...so let's make our own exit."
She swapped her tricorder for her type-2 phaser, quickly ramping up the setting on it, "Set your phasers to Level 13, we're going to make a hole right there." This time she pointed at the ruined remains of the freighter's viewscreen. "We'll burn through into an auxiliary maintenance room, then straight into a compartment already open to atmosphere."
Solan seemed unconvinced, "We still have to evade the enemy as we make our way back to the shuttle, Lieutenant. With an injured civilian, we will not be able to hurry."
A weak voice surprised them all, "Don't worry about me..." They all looked down to see a pair of gray eyes looking up at them. Despite everything, somehow the Andorian man - a boy, really, if Reese was honest - had regained consciousness, "Leave me behind."
"Like Hell, young man!" Maggie's response brokered no argument, "We didn't come all the way down here and get stuck in this tin can to give up on you now!" She looked up at Solan, "He'll make it, Commander, even if I have to carry him!"
The vaguest glint of amusement shone briefly in Solan's eyes, "That will not be necessary, Doctor. I believe I will be of better physical caliber to attempt that."
Reese stifled a smile as Maggie frowned ever-so-slightly at the minor verbal dig, before letting it pass. Instead, she helped the clearly-woozy Andorian to his feet, as Cinaran, Solan and Reese herself took aim at the exposed bulkhead behind the smashed screen.
This is going to work, she thought to herself. It has too.
No way am I letting any of us die on this frozen wasteland...

*           *           *

As the damage control teams fixed the console panels that had burned out as a result of the attack from the unknown vessel, Tel continued her standing vigil at the Tactical console. She waved away the acrid smoke that still polluted the bridge, despite the best efforts of the overtaxed atmospheric filters, "How are we doing?"
Ensign Ye looked up from her own console. The shake of her head said it all before she even opened her mouth to speak, "Not good, ma'am."
"They haven't fired in a while," Dayan added, a little too hopefully. "Maybe our return fire did some serious damage..?"
"We're in a stand-off," Tel mused. "Neither side knows much about the other, so we're both playing it coy." She stepped down from her position, moving to stand at Dayan's side, "What's your analysis of the enemy ship, Lieutenant?"
Dayan studied his own sensor returns for several seconds, "Given how they floundered during our fight, I'd say that their manuevering is nowhere near as efficient as ours."
Tel liked the sound of that, "So we have agility on our side. Good."
Dayan nodded in agreement before continuing, "We've also managed to get some clearer readings from the sensors, enough to get a read on their armament and propulsion unit." He met her eyes, "If we need to, I'm confidant we can outrun them, Captain."
Even though she understood it was a valid option to put out there, Tel bristled, "I'm not ready to abandon our people on the planet, Lieutenant. Or our survivor."
Dayan's eyes remained on her, doing his damndest to appear unfazed as his captain's ire, "Of course, ma'am. I didn't mean to suggest otherwise."
She offered him a terse nod, allowing him to go back to focusing on being ready for more of his fancy flying. 
[Engineering to Bridge.]
"Go ahead, Chief?" Tel replied, as she retook the Tactical console.
She could hear the relief in Hanover's voice, [Warp-core is back on-line,] she said, [But honestly, it's a patch-job until we can replace the primary power coupling properly.]
"Will it hold if we have to go to warp suddenly?" That was all she needed to know right now.
Hanover grudgingly replied, [It'll hold, but not for long, no matter how fast or slow we go.] Their was a pregnant pause before she continued, [We've taken a beating, Cap, and we need to lick our wounds. I need all hands on deck, no matter how qualified.]
It took a long second before she understood the chief engineer's meaning, "Are you asking me to allow you to pull in the interns and cadets?" It did not sit well with her, "They're children, Mitch."
[We were all children at some point, Cap,] Hanover replied earnestly, before making a customary crack, [Well, maybe not you. I haven't decided on that one, yet.] She became serious again, [But they came out here to learn, to understand what Starfleet life is like, not sit in quarters as the ship shakes apart around them.] There was silence for a moment, before she added, [Sir.]
With a sigh of regret, Tel nodded, more to herself then anything, "Permission granted, Chief."
Talk about throwing them in the deep end...

*           *           *

Lagging a few minutes behind the rest of her away team, taking the time to prepare a 'welcoming gift' for the attacking soldier once they breached the bridge hatch, Reese carefully crawled out onto the exterior hull of the freighter. 
Bracing her against the bitter cold, she carefully climbed and clambering her way down as quickly as she could. She finally slid the rest of the way into the built up bank of snow and dirt that had accumulated at the nose of the ship during it's crash landing. 
As she got to her feet, having landed unceremoniously on her backside, she spotted Cinaran about ten meters away, waving her over. She quickly waved back at him to get down and out of sight - there was no point exposing himself so blatantly like that - as she rushed over to him. 
Ducking behind a natural rock incline that was covered in a thick layer of frozen lichen, she found her crewmates. The Andorian, who had revealed his name to be 'Oli' of all things, was still conscious, but clearly still weak and woozy from his ordeal. 
"What kept you?!" Cinaran practically hissed the question at her.
She shrugged, offering a sly smile, "Making sure whoever came after us would receive a warm wel--"
A muffled explosion, deep from within the carcass of the freighter but still loud enough to be heard by them, cut her off.
Solan affixed her with a disapproving gaze, that immediately had Reese on the defensive, "I did not authorize lethal measure to be taken, Lieutenant."
Reese returned his look with an angry glare of her own, "If we'd served together a bit longer, sir, you'd know that's not how I roll." She took a moment to push down her annoyance, "It was just a stun grenade I threw together."
Maggie looked at her with amazement, "That's why you wanted my phaser?"
Reese nodded, "Exactly. I linked my tricorder with it to act as a trigger as soon as someone came within a set range."
"An interesting tactic," Solan commented, "I was not aware such modifications were possible."
She shrugged, more then a little pleased with herself, "It's something I picked up teaching at the Academy." 
Cinaran's eyes stayed on his tricorder screen as he spoke, "From one of the other professors?"
She grinned, "Actually, it was one of the students." Her good humour faded as another chill wind blew across the team, "Shouldn't we be heading back to the shuttle?"
Solan shook his head, "Tricorder scans reveal the presence of enemy soldier in close proximity to the Eisenberg. Too many to subdue with ease."
"We're sitting ducks here, though, aren't we?" Maggie opined, as she ran a protoplaser over the stump of Oli's severed antennae. The Andorian, who was without any thermal outer layers, shivered furiously. Whether it was from the cold or delayed shock, Reese had no clue. 
Cinaran's abrupt cry of success caught them all by surprise, "Got it!" He winced at the looks they all shot him, "Sorry. But I've managed to rig up a scrambling field. That will muck up any sensors they might be using to track us."
"Excellent work, Commander," Solan complimented. Before he could continue, the collective chirps of their communicators caught their attentions, [Antares to aw-- --em, ple--e respo--.]
Reese felt a surge of hope as Solan fluidly tapped his badge, "Solan to Antares, we receive you." Somehow, the Antares had punched through the interference in the upper atmosphere.
[--od to hear, Comm--,] came back the extremly choppy and static-ridden reply, [--rely hear you --ough. What is your statu--?]
"Captain, request emergency beam-up. Unable to return to shuttle safely," the Vulcan explained, and Reese saw him cast a brief glance in Oli ad Maggie's direction, "and our survivor is in need of urgent medical attetion."
Reese shivered, but it wasn't from the cold. Risking the transporter in such a heavily ionized atmosphere? 
This is going to be a rough transport...

*           *           *

[This is not a good idea, Cap,] Mitch's tone left no doubt about how she felt about the order she'd just been given, [We're at maximum transporter range, and the targeting sensors are going to have a hell of a time reading anything clearly through all this interference as well, even with the combadges to lock on to.]
"We don't have a choice, Lieutenant," Tel replied evenly. "I've no intention of leaving anyone down there."
There was the briefest of pauses before the chief engineer sighed in frustration, [Understood, Captain. I'll handle the transporter personally. Hanover out.]
Tel looked towards Dayan, as the eager helmsman looked to her for orders, "Mr. Dayan, be ready to execute a jump to high warp as soon as the away team is back onboard."
He nodded tersely, sweat beading his brow, "Aye, Captain."
She looked over at Ye, "Boost our signal strength as much as you can, I want Hanover to be able to coordinate clearly with the away team." The ensign nodded as Tel turned towards Clarke. "Keep all active sensors on the enemy ship," she instructed the junior science officer, "I want to be ready for anything they might try while we have our shields are down."
Clarke nodded, swallowing nervously, "Aye, Captain."
Tel studied the sensor returns on the Tactical console, feeling her heart beating faster. Was the enemy ship really as badly damaged as it appeared, or were they just playing possum in order to catch the Antares in a moment of weakness..?

*           *           *

[Hope you're ready for this, people, it ain't gonna be fun...]
"Gee, thanks, Chief," Maggie grumbled, as she slowly helped Oli to his feet. With the transporter limited by the interference and only to beam up nor more then two at a time, Solan had ordered Hanover to lock onto the doctor's signal first, so she and her patient would be the first to be transported back to the Antares.
Reese offered the older woman a sly grin, "What's the matter, Maggie? Not afraid of transporters, are you?"
The English woman scoffed, "Transporters I don't have a problem with," she retorted gamely, "But panicky operators in the middle of dangerous situations? Them I could do without!"
The rejoinder Reese had ready never left her lips, as a searing blast of plasma burst through the snowbank they were using as cover, burning into the soil at their feet.
"Shit!" Reese blurted without thinking. That was too damn close. Again!
It was Cinaran who answered the question that was on all their minds, "They must have triangulated our comm-signals!"
"Antares," Solan barked, "We are under fire, initiate transport!"
The transporter effect washed over both Maggie and Oli, the last image of her Reese saw being her fear-filled eyes as they vanished in a sparkle of energy. 
See you soon, Doc, she thought, as she secured her grip on her phaser, and readied herself for a fight.

*           *           *

As she struggled with the transporter controls, Mitch Hanover resisted the urge to curse loudly. Sure, it would have made her feel better - a hell of a lot, really - but it wouldn't do to use words like that in front of the two non-commissioned officers who were assisting her. 
Part of her had wanted to call on young Charlie to help. She'd been more then impressed with him after only a few minutes of working with him. Hell, she realized, most of the interns I've had the last week spent too long trying to suck up to me instead of doing the damn jobs I gave them. Not Charlie though. He'd gotten on with the job, no questions asked, and he didn't need his hand holding. 
But given that his father was one of the people she was currently trying to save, Hanover figured having him in the transporter room wasn't the best idea. Instead, she recruited Petty Officer Myles, one of her most trusted NCOs, to watch the pattern buffer like a hawk, while Senior Chief Per'Shon, the Antares's senior transporter technician, worked on boosting the annular confinement to filter out extraneous charged particles that could be caught in the matter stream.
The lanky Saurian's eyes did that weird side-ways blinking thing that Hanover still got unnerved by, "Matter stream is clear, Chief."
Myles responded to her unasked question, "Pattern buffer is stable. Reading two clear and distinct patterns, ready for reintegration."
Hanover breathed a sigh of relief, as she double-checked the status of the phase-transition coils before engaging the final sequence, "Materializing now."
Two forms began to take shape on the central pad of the transporter platform. Hanover winced as an alert came up on the console, "Dammit, I need more power to the energizing coils!"
"Engaging auxiliary power, Chief!" Myles replied, punching controls on the secondary console by the equipment bays. 
She breathed a sigh of relief, as the energizing coils stabilized, finally looking back up as the glow of materialization faded away to reveal an intact Dr. Campbell and a pale and bloody Andorian. Campbell was just about able to keep him upright. 
She glared at them, "How about you stop gawking and come give me a hand! He's heavier then he looks, you know?!"
Myles and Per'Shon quickly moved to aid the irate chief medical officer, just as the doors opened and two of Campbell's medical team rushed in with an anti-grav gurney. Hanover tapped her communicator, "Bridge, we have two of the away team. We should have the others up within the next few minutes."
Two down, three more to go...
Toggling the comm frequency to the away team open, Hanover asked, "Okay, people, who's next?"
[Lock onto Commander Cinaran's communicator,] Solan ordered, his voice as stoic as ever, even as she could hear weapons fire over the comm-link, [Lieutenant Reese and myself will maintain covering fire. Energize when read--]
Reese's voice, practically a shout, interrupted him, [Grenade! Get dow--!]
A sudden and very loud BANG cut her off, and the buzz of phaser fire died off just as abruptly. "Antares to away team, respond!"
Nothing. The channel was dead...

*           *           *

It all happened so fast, that Reese had barely enough time to call out a warning as the small object landed a few feet away from them. She hadn't recognize the design, but knew instinctively what the damn thing was, and had turned herself away in a desperate bid to protect herself.
It had exploded, but not with heat and shrapnel as she expected, but with a flash of light brighter then a dozen suns, and a deafening blast of noise that assailed her eardrums. Everything washed white as her ears rang loudly for several long seconds, as Reese desperately and furiously blinked several times to clear her vision, waiting for her hearing to return. 
Dammit, a flash-bang? Some kind of combined sonic and photon pulse that left them blind and deaf for too many valuable seconds. She'd maintained her grip on her phaser out of sheer force of will, and continued firing random shots over the edge of the deteriotating snowbank.
Her vision began to clear, albeit swimming with colourful spots, but she could make out the forms of Cinaran and Solan on their kneews, looking around blindly. Neither of them held their weapons, instead they had been dropped onto the snowy surface. 
They weren't alone, either.
Alongside her crewmates stood an armour-clad warrior, completely covered head to toe in metallic space-black combat gear. Their plasma rifle held far too close to her crewmates for her liking.
Oh, shit...
Another one in armour, almost identical aside from the strips of silver that highlighted areas of their armour around their shoulder, stepped into her expanding field of vision. They roughly tore the combadges that Cinaran and Solan wore from their uniform tunics, before dropping them and crushing them under foot.
This second solider turned to look at her. Reese felt the fingers gripping her phaser twitch ever-so-slightly. She forced herself to relax that grip as the solider with their weapon trained on her crewmates adjusted their aim so their weapon were pointed directly at Cinaran's head.
No words were uttered, but Reese understood the meaning immediately. Surrender or he dies.
With careful movements, she allowed her own phaser to fall from her fingers. Pulled off her combadge and dropped it to the floor...

*           *           *

"Anything?"
[Sorry, Cap...] replied Hanover to Tel's urgent query, [The signal-lock on their commbadges is just gone.]
A quick glance towards the communications station told the commanding officer of the Antares that Ensign Ye was already checking her own readings. "No signal return, Captain. They've either been deactivated or destroyed."
"Captain..?" Clarke sounded far too unnerved for her liking, "Intermittent sensor readings indicate that the enemy ship's power is returning to normal levels."
Dayan followed the science officer's onimous warning with one of his own, "That's not all, ma'am. It looks like they're activating manuevering jets, adjusting position towards us."
Tel looked to the viewscreen. Sure enough, the large and threatening vessel was slowly coming about, "Moving into attack posture, Mr. Dayan?"
The young man nodded, "Could very well be, Captain."
"Damn," Tel whispered under her breath, more to herself then the crew around her. Whatever damage they'd inflicted hadn't been enough. "Lieutenant Clarke, can you pick up the life-signs of our people still on the surface?"
"I'm boosting sensor gain as much as I can, ma'am," the science officer replied earnestly, "but we're too far away to punch through the interference with any real clarity."
That settled it. They'd run out of time to play it safe with three of her crew still at risk. 
She knew what had to be done. "Mr. Dayan, Mr. Kinchaal, I want you to take us in closer."
"How close, Captain?"
Tel looked back at Clarke, who quickly answered, "Recommend that we close in to the planet's exosphere to cut down the amount of interference."
"You heard her, Mr. Dayan," Tel added, "Get to it." That close would probably do some damage to the ventral hull plating while the shields were down, but nothing they couldn't deal with later. Although she doubted Mitch would appreciate the Antares ending up with a burned underside. One problem at a time...
She looked back once again towards the science station, "Use all forward sensors arrays to look for the away team. I'll use the aft and lateral arrays to keep active sensors on the enemy ship." We need to be ready for anything they might do while our shields are down, she considered silently.
Clarke nodded, swallowing nervously, "Aye, Captain."
She pressed an intercom control on the panel, "All hands, this is the captain. We'll be pushing in close to planetary atmosphere in order to rescue our away team. Our shields will be down, so batten down the hatches and brace yourself!" 
Tel's fingers danced over the tactical controls, making ready a spread of photon torpedoes in the aft tubes. She was going to have to time this just right...

*           *           *

[What are you doing here?]
Did... did he just speak English?! Cinaran couldn't believe what she was hearing. Although the voice was being electronically filtered via the helmet, he understood every word the solider said perfectly. The Betazoid realized quickly he shouldn't be surprised - universal translator technology was easy enough to come by, and if they had been monitoring their communications, they could have adjusted to Federation Standard. 
What really unnerved him was the waves of anger coming of the soldiers. It was almost like an assault to his telepathic senses. As he held his hands against the back of his head in a pose of surrender, he did his best to filter his thoughts free of extraneous outside emotion.
[Well..?] The solider prodded further.
Both he and Reese remained silent, allowing Solan, as the superior officer, to take the lead, "We were here in response to a distress call. We are expl--"
The other soldier struck a savage blow to the Vulcan's solar plexus, using the butt of their plasma rifle. It cut Solan off, leaving him struggling for breath, although he managed to not fall forward.
"Hey!" Reese couldn't help herself, indignant cold fury emanating from her, "He was answering!"
[We don't need to hear from any stinking green-blood!] The hate in those words caught Cinaran by total surprise. 'Green-blood'? Have they met Vulcans before?
Or maybe at least... Vulcanoids? 
Despite his scientific curiosity, Cinaran knew his duty. They had been captured, deprived of their communicators... but not his tricorder. It was still in his holster. Apparently, whatever scans the soldiers had performed on them, it had declared the device safe.
"Then why don't you hear it from me!" As Reese continued talking, keeping all eyes on her as she explained how they were explorers who had picked up a distress call from a Federation ship, Cinaran ever-so-slowly moved his right hand down his side towards his holster. He kept his gaze forward, limiting his movement to just his arm.
His fingers brushed the surface of the tricorder, finding the small stud set into the sensor cluster. Pressing it down.
Please let this work...

*           *           *

"Captain!" Ye's excited voice grabbed Tel's attention away from the tactical displays, "Picking up a tricorder emergency data burst!"
She spun around towards the science station, but Clarke was already at work, "Already getting a fix on the location and forwarding the sensor data to the transporter room!"
It wasn't as effective as a commbadge lock, but the incoming transmission from the tricorder to the Antares's main computer would allow them to perform a blanket transport, beaming up anything that was within a small radius of the signal's point of origin.
It's now or never! "Status of the enemy ship?"
"Making a parallel course for interception, Captain," Dayan responded, "Possible indication in their power signature of weapons being charged."
"Helm, be ready for emergency warp jump, on my mark!"
"Aye, Captain!"
As she aligned the targetting crosshairs on her display with the enemy ship, Tel allowed herself a grim smile, "Hope you enjoy this little surprise..!"

*           *           *

From the rear of the Antares emerged a spread of photon torpedoes, nothing more then red points of light. They blazed across space, crossing the distance between the two ships in seconds.
But they didn't slam into the armoured hull of the other ship. Instead, moments from impact, they exploded in a dazzling display of light and energy.
Their sensors blinded by the overload, the other ship was unable to track the Antares as it dived towards the planet. It's ventral hull beginning to glow white-hot as it skipped across the outermost layer of atmosphere...

*           *           *

[Hey, what are you doing?!]
Reese, angrily glaring up at what she believed to be the leader of the group of soldiers, looked over as the one with the rifle turned it back to Cinaran. The Betazoid's eyes went wide with fear, one hand still behind his head, the other fingering his holstered tricorder. He shot her a panicked look, and Reese quickly understood what he'd done. Good boy, Xerx...
"Hey!" she yelled as loudly as she could, "Leave him alone!" She made to lunge forward, but it was a token effort of resistance that had the desired result. The soldier instinctively turned away from Cinaran, bringing his rifle around towards her--
--and that was when Cinaran made his move, throwing himself forward with a roar of fury that surprised all of them, even Reese herself. They fell to the snow-covered ground in a tangle of limbs, wrestling over the rifle that each of them now had a tight grip on.
As the lead soldier went to pull a smaller weapon from a holster, Solan abruptly lashed out, fluidly executing a leg sweep that Reese recognized as a Suus Manha move. The soldier hit the floor with a grunt, his hand-weapon falling to the wayside. Reese grabbed for it, as Solan went to aide the struggling Cinaran, using his prodigious Vulcan strength to restrain the soldier as he tried to throttle the Betazoid science officer. 
[Take your filthy hands off me, green-blood!] The soldier practically spat the words through his helmet, but Solan was unfazed by the vitriol lacing every syllable. 
Cinaran coughed, rubbing his bruised throat, before pulling out and flipping open his tricorder, grimacing at whatever it was telling him, "We don't have long, the Antares got my signal, they'll be able to use it to get a wide-range transporter lock on us."
[Stop right there!] Three more armour-clad soldier came over the snowbank, weapons raised and aimed at the three Starfleet officers.
Cinaran spun around, his eyes locking with hers. She heard his voice in her mind {Tell Charlie I love him, Danni...}
Why--? The realization of what Cinaran was about to do hit her just as he under-armed the tricorder towards her, "Xerx, no, don't!" 
She instinctively caught the small device, very nearly fumbling the catch with the alien weapon she had in hand as well. Before she could do anything else, she felt the familiar tingle of the transporter effect prickle her skin, as the annular confinement beam held her in place.
Everything was washed away in the sparkling energy of the transporter...

*           *           *

[Transport successful, Cap!] Hanover bellowed over the intercom, [Just holding them in the buffer as we stabilize their individual patterns after beaming through all that interference.]
"Outstanding, Chief!" Tel replied, keeping her attention focused on the tactical displays. The detonated torpedoes spread had done the trick, allowing the Antares to focus on bringing home their absent crew.
However, Tel knew their luck wouldn't last, even before Dayan turned a worried expression her way, "Captain, the ventral hull is starting to buckle under the strain of re-entry."
"Bring us up, Lieutenant," she ordered, "Once we're clear of the atmosphere, make your course 112 mark 17."
Dayan nodded, as he and Kirchaal worked in concert to pull the ship back out into space and get them the hell away from the system. The burning glare on the viewscreen faded as the Antares returned to the coldness of space, "Free and clear to navigate, Captain. Setting course as ordered."
"Captain," Clarke said, "Now reading a large build-up of gravimetric particles at the fore of the enemy ship. A graviton generator of some sort, a massive one to produce these kinds of levels."
Their main weapon, Tel realized with dread, they finally recharged it. Whatever damage they'd done to the ship must have now allowed them to detect the weapon building up to fire.
They were out of time. 
"Emergency warp speed, Lieutenant!"

*           *           *

As space began to distort and flux in the area immediately in front of the alien ship, the Antares made a sharp turn, their nose pointing away from the ice-blue planet.
The warp engines flashed with brilliant blue energy, and the Miranda-class starship was gone...

*           *           *

Oh, crap...
Hanover checked the readings for the third time. It was not good. According to the pattern buffer, only TWO patterns currently resided within it. 
There had been THREE members of the away team left on the planet.
Had they lost a pattern due to the interference? Or had they been outside of the range of the transporter field, and had been left behind in enemy territory?
The only way to know for sure was to rematerialize the two occupants and find out. Hanover's fingers hesitated over the controls that would initiate the rematerialization subroutine. Was it Reese? Solan? Cinaran? Oh, God, what am I gonna tell Charlie..?
Hanover shook her head. First things first, Mitch. Without any further delay, she swiped her fingers down the console surface. Two figures formed slowly in the central pad. One was upright, an arm outstretched, the other prone on the platform. As they finally reintegrated, Hanover saw that the standing was Reese, holding some kind of alien weapon, while the other... was someone who looked like neither Solan or Cinaran.
As the annular confinement beam finally released it's hold on them, Reese abruptly turned to look her way, "Quick! Cinaran and Solan are still down there!"
Hanover shook her head mutely, trying to find her voice, "We-- we're not in orbit any more. We though we had all of you, already!"
Reese looked at her in shock, all the blood rushing from her face as she absorbed the news. She stood there silent, as Hanover tried to find the words.
She didn't get the chance.
[Wha..? Where am I? What happened?!]
The other individual, in the black-as-night military-looking armor, sprung to their feet. Their helmeted head swivelled left, then right, as they took in their surroundings.
Reese immediately brought the weapon she held around, aiming straight for the intruder, "Stay where you are!"
They didn't listen. They made a move to lunge towards Reese, but she proved faster. She fired, the weapon discharging a bolt of purple energy that slammed into the intruder's chest. As the smell of plasma assaulted Hanover's nose, she watched in amazement as the energy danced all across the armor's surface, the intruder convulsing for several seconds before finally dropping to the platform. Eeriely still aside from occasional random muscle spasms.
Hanover looked down at the weapon Reese held in her hand, impressed, "Nice..."
Reese remained stony-faced. A cold glint in her eyes as she looked down at the fallen body of the intruder, "Contact the Captain." 
Her voice was like ice. It sent a chill down Hanover's spine. 
"Tell her we have an uninvited guest."